Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#609

 This week, Des and I talk about women in peril, from the 70‘s to now!  First we travel to Italy for a very odd giallo (?) featuring the strangely compelling Mimsy Farmer, 1974's The Perfume of The Lady In Black.  Then we look at the Netflix/Blumhouse collaboration Cam, starring Madeline Brewer as an internet cam girl who...might not be herself.  And that’s freaking her out....

The trailers are below, as are a short essay on how to recognize a giallo and a roundtable of actual cam girls answering questions about their profession.

Listen to Dread Media #609 here

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#608

What goes great with horror movies?  Why, if you’re Des Reddick, it’s no question--it’s Heavy Metal!  So this week, join Des and Darryll as we shred right into the legendary Penelope Spheeris documentary The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years.  Then Duane drops by to keep the hardcore grimness coming when he takes on Jim Van Bebber’s notorious revenge thriller Deadbeat at Dawn.

The trailers are below, as are a Penelope Spheeris interview from the 80‘s (dig her hair!) and The  Van Bebber Killcount for Deadbeat at Dawn.

Listen to Dread Media #608 here

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#607

Fannibals like myself got all excited over the prospect of the Ultimate Dr. Lector Mads Mikkelsen playing an eye-patch wearing elder hit man ready to school some younger assassins in a little film called Polar.  Des and I watched this Netflix original and let you know whether this neo-grindhouse actioner based on a 2012 webcomic but obviously made to get some of Dat John Wick Money is Number One With A Bullet or Dead on Arrival.  Then Des and Duane saddle up to The Bar to review this dark comedy by Alex de la Iglesia.

The trailers are below, as is a discussion of why Mads is the Greatest Hannibal Lecter ever (and I will fight you on that) and an....odd music video for a song called ‘Bar Breaker.’

Listen to Dread Media #607 here

THE MOVIES OF MY LIFE PHASE ONE: It Lives Again (a.k.a. It’s Alive 2)

For me, the best Larry Cohen films are those that use their genre conventions--and man, did Larry love his genre conventions--as a fulcrum with which he could explore darker subjects.  The reason his first horror film, It’s Alive, works so well is because it is not about a mutant baby on the rampage; it’s actually about how a couple react to a pregnancy that does not go as planned.  The genius of that story is how the baby is basically reacting like an actual baby, allowing for Cohen to focus primarily on the Davis family and what having a ‘special’ child is doing to them.

It’s Alive was a surprise hit, so it stood to reason that--much like Black Ceasar begat Hell Up In Harlem--Cohen would have a follow-up in that legendary car trunk of film scripts he tooled around Hollywood with.  It Lives Again showed up in theaters four years after the original, had a similar ad campaign (instead of a baby carriage with a claw hanging out of it, this one-sheet featured a birthday cake with a claw print in it) and extrapolated on the hint at the end of the first film that the Davis baby wasn’t an aberration, but the beginning of something more profound.

And yet....

After watching this sequel, something I haven’t done until now, I don’t think Cohen was as enthused about exploring this new world he was hinting at in the very last scene of the original.  I didn’t feel the creative fire I feel when I watch his best work.  In fact, the bulk of the film sort of meanders aimlessly, ending up in a place I would not expect a Larry Cohen movie to end.

Not that you’d know it from watching the first half hour.  That is one tight, focused and suspenseful bit of filmmaking.  We’re introduced to the Scotts (Frederick Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd, who looks remarkably like Sarah Silverman's sister) at their baby shower--and there, in the same spot in several shots, is Frank Davis (played once again by character actor John P. Ryan).  After the party is over, Davis tells the couple that the expectant mother, Jodie, is going to give birth to a child like his...and that the government has been systematically slaughtering these mutant infants. Luckily, Frank has allied with Drs. Perry and Forrest (Cohen mainstay Andrew Duggan and Eddie Constantine), who have set up a secret facility to rescue the babies and study them.

So the first act, which sets up this premise, sets up the villain (played magnificently by John Marley) and gets our protagonists to the secret facility, is pretty damn good.  But once all our characters are situated in and around the facility, it seems like Cohen doesn’t have an interest in what happens next.  The film stops being about the ideas raised in that first act and starts being about ‘Well, I have to play to the fans.’  Nothing makes this clearer than the way he forces James Dixon’s Lt. Perkins into the story roughly halfway through; you could literally cut out all of his scenes and have the narrative unchanged, but because he was in the first film he has to be in this one.  Hell, it actually takes away from the arc of our main villain, who is set up to be a dark mirror to Frank.  And there are other things that mark this as a sequel with nothing new to say--the presence of extra mutants, killing off the main character of the last film, creating an absolutely pointless tableau involving a birthday party just so he can get an iconic image for the poster....it’s just wearying.

The sad thing is It Lives Again is just a lazy film from a filmmaker who is generally anything but.  That’s brought home when you realize Cohen preceded this with God Told Me To and followed this up with...okay, Full Moon High is far from my favorite.  But both films showed a lot more flair than this.

As much as I recommend almost all of Cohen’s work both as a writer (he’s still the only person who seemed to understand what Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct was actually about in the two screenplays he wrote in the 90‘s for NBC) and as a director, I would not recommend you see this until you’ve seen a number of his much better work--especially his 'New York’ films (God Told Me To, Q, Special Effect, Perfect Strangers, The Stuff and The Ambulance), which are more indicative of how he worked.

Hey!  Wanna Help Support This Blog And Get Cool Goodies In Return?  Then head on over to The Domicile of Dread Patreon Page and join me on my crusade to Make The World Stranger.  For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get new fiction and exclusive essays--like the one that will drop this week where I give my thoughts on the new Hellboy reboot.  Invest a bit more, and get other stuff including advance access to my new television podcast Thomas Deja’s Watching (the first episode uis available now--uncut, uncensored and totally in the raw!), the Patreon Exclusive Podcast Cinematic Mirage, movie commentaries...and even the chance to assign me articles that’ll be published on this very blog!

EXAMPLES OF HOW MY CRACKED BRAIN WORKS: The Exquisite Tweet of Ranking Roger

The problem with being a person whose main purpose is to create things is that it’s hard to explain how you go about your business.  It’s easy to understand how a construction worker or a chef works because there’s concrete steps you can observe...but you can’t really observe what a writer does because it’s almost all in his or her head.

Which brings us to something that happened last month.  You see, Ranking Roger passed away on March 26th.  Roger Charlery was an essential figure in ‘2nd Wave’ Ska as a vocalist for The English Beat.  I love ska music (somewhere, if you look really hard, you can probably find a videotape of a New Year’s Eve ‘Tribute to Ska’ episode of USA Up All Night featuring Gilbert Gottfried and Rhonda Shear where I was a background dancer in the widest shouldered black jacket ever...and was caught on camera zipping up my pants), so I was sitting at the senior center I spend two days a week doing presentations for listening to The Beat...

...and then one Angie Bulkney, writer/photographer/ska aficianado posted a tweet where she quoted one of the English Beat’s iconic songs, ‘Mirror In The Bathroom.’

...and I decided for some reason to answer back with a quote on my own...

....which resulted in us doing this weird writing experiment where we tried to write a dialogue between two characters using only lines from English Beat songs.  It made a strange sort of logic as it seemed our two characters were going through some sort of break-up as some form of revolution loomed over them.

The thing about this is that it spun out of us spontaneously.  There was nothing calculated about what we were doing.  While we’ve talked about doing it again, I realize it will never develop in the natural way it developed on this particular day.

So here’s what developed when two people start quoting stuff.  Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Can I take you to a restaurant that's got glass
tables? You can watch yourself while you are
eating."
1:33pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client
angiebulkeley

Stop talking to your Mirror in the
Bathroom.....
1:42pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

Can't stop won't stop!
1:42pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
Exquisite Tweets from @angiebulkeley, @NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

Oh, why don't you just Save It For Later before
this town loses its Tenderness.....
1:53pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

...I like it best in the freezing winter, boy - Ilike to sneer as I sail past your bus stop!
1:59pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley


Hey, if you have your brush, you can avoid therush....come whether you whine or grind....

(Does anybody understand our conversation
right now?)
2:05pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

Right? I mean, how can you stand there, and
not wonder why?
2:06pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

Ahhh, there are two dozen other stupid
reasons why we should suffer for this. Don't
bother trying to explain them.
3/29/2019 Exquisite Tweets from @angiebulkeley, @NocturneTomDeja
NocturneTomDeja

I could have phoned, I could have spoke...but
how to break the news without breaking their
heart?
2:09pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

You know what your problem is? You're just
too nice to talk to.
Do it now, you know there's never a next time.
2:14pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

Don't let my glad expression give you the
wrong impression!
2:18pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

Every time it happens, seem to act a little
touched...In this at least, you're just like me

(are we writing a story composed only of
#EnglishBeat lyrics?)
2:20pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

Are we angry, are we looking for peace, or just
tryin' to win the war by killing all the enemy
off?

(And damn right we are!)
2:21pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

Ahhh, War....alright...because it's strictly love
and unity.
(Does it have a plot yet?)
2:25pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

You're stuck, like dragging your feet through
the mud, always talking 'bout things that you
just can't do then...

(Like winter, it's coming)
2:27pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

True. Each time I try to speak, it does sound
like sorry....
It usually comes mixed up with fear.
2:28pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

And if I confess, if it's all the same to you I'll
stay indifferent.
2:30pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

Aren't you forgetting yourself?
Merely let your mouth stand.

(Is somebody going to archive this to see if it
makes any sense?)
2:36pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

Two dozen other stupid reasons why we
should suffer for this. Don't bother trying to
explain them.

(It will be analyzed in future grad courses)
@TheEnglishBeat
2:40pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

Hey, two swords slashing at each other only
sharpen one another.
Are we angry? Are we looking for peace?
(Are you and I going to do this every time an
alternative music icon dies?)
#AStoryInEnglishBeatLyrics
2:43pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley TheEnglishBeat
NocturneTomDeja

Every story has to be about something, Isuppose. This one says I lose my head as the
feeling starts to grow, you know?

(only those as iconic as Ranking Roger)
2:45pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja TheEnglishBeat
angiebulkeley

Now hold on down there. Take it easy, yeah?
You hear my song and you gotta come around!
2:48pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley TheEnglishBeat
NocturneTomDeja

Walk away, before I say it's getting too much.
Walk away, walk away before one of us cracks up.
2:49pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja TheEnglishBeat
angiebulkeley

Through the owners of this fun fair, you won't
find a ride you like....
You could make a profit more than anyone
deserves.
2:52pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley TheEnglishBeat
NocturneTomDeja

You're scared you might slip when you're
holding a knife...lose your fingers or more...
2:55pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja
angiebulkeley

(Sadly I have to leave for a while to spend time
with the seniors I teach writing and stuff to
every Thursday and Friday--I will be playing
them some @EnglishBeat today...we can take
this up later! :))
2:58pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley
NocturneTomDeja

Save if for later! ❤
2:59pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja EnglishBeat
angiebulkeley

Just as long as your legs don't give way and
you hit the ground....
3:00pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to angiebulkeley EnglishBeat
NocturneTomDeja

I won't run away and let you down.
3:01pm Mar 28th 2019 via Twitter Web Client in reply to NocturneTomDeja EnglishBeat
angiebulkeley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be sure to keep an eye out for Angie's horror novel Malcolm!

As for me, I'm gearing up for the 31 Characters 31 Days Challenge to benefit RAINN...keep your eyes on updates!

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#606

The Maven of Western New York Filmmaking Greg Lamberson joins Des for another talk this week about the impending release of Widow’s Point, Johnny Gruesome, what’s going on with his writing career...and the passing of the iconic writer/director Larry Cohen.  Then, to continue our tribute to a man who helped define Grindhouse Cinema in the 70‘s and 80‘s, I show up to talk about Cohen in general and his 1985 consumerist horror tale The Stuff!

Since there’s no trailer for Widow’s Point yet, here’s a look at some on-set photos that appeared in Entertainment Weekly a few months back.  There’s also a song from the Johnny Gruesome Soundtrack for the novel, and a Q&A with Larry Cohen at the Museum of The Moving Image back in 2007.

Listen to Dread Media #606 here

Introducing....THE 31 CHARACTER 31 DAYS CHALLENGE!

Last year I tried to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) with my Halloween Horrorfest.  I didn’t do too well.

I’m going to do that again in October, don’t worry--but I also decided to do something in May.

See, I was doing some digging for a project I wanted to do primarily for my Patreon Page that I’m presently calling Strikeforce: Liberty.  While I was doing so, I came across something from 2012 called The 30 Character Challenge.  In it, someone challenged creators to create a new character for every day in November.  The idea intrigued me so I decided to do it to generate the characters who will appear in Strikeforce: Liberty... only with 31 characters, one for each day of next month.  To act as prompts, I pulled 31 names from the Public Domain Super Heroes Database.  I am working only on these names.

...and then I decided to try raising money to help survivors of sexual abuse.  So I set up this page and am asking you to donate what you can to help while I strive to stretch my creativity to produce 31 characters--all female or transgender--that will be featured in a New Pulp epic!

What will you get besides the satisfaction of helping people in need?  Well, you’ll have two options on how you can cash your donation cred....

1) You can choose to ‘Sponsor’ a character.  Pick a name from the list of 31 below, and I will give you a ‘producer’s credit’ on that character when I create her, and will get a chance to see her before she’s posted here for the world--so you and I can work together to tweak her before she steps into the spotlight!

(Gee, that last bit sounded unintentionally dirty...)

2) You can choose to replace a name on the list (I will choose which name) with one of your own devising--so I will have to create a character based solely on your suggestion.  You will get a ‘producer’s credit, and you’ll get to polish her up with me before she makes her debut.

I want to point out these characters will be Open Source--which means I’m giving them to the world to use as it sees fit.

Now, if you’re a Patreon--or if you’re not a Patreon and are willing to make a second donation--you get something extra...namely The Road to Strikeforce: Liberty, a daily mini-podcast where I will discuss my thought process behind the creation of each character!  So there’s something in it for my special, supportive friends.

(And of course I’ll be happy to welcome you into the Domicile of Dread Patreon Page, where for as little as one dollar a month you’ll get goodies such as exclusive stories--like the Strikeforce: Liberty serial!)

Here is the List of 31, in case you’re curious:

ABARAXX
ACE OF BLADES
ATMOS FEAR
BLACK ANGEL
BLACK WIDOWER
BLONDE BOMBER
BULLFROG
CAIRO JONES
CANDLEWICK
CEREBEX
CORSAIR QUEEN
DEATHLESS BRAIN
ELECTRIC RAY
FANTOMAH
THE FIGURE
GREY LADY
JANE DOE
LADY LIBERTY
LEOPARD WOMAN
LOA
MADAME ZERO
MR. RISK
NOCTURNE
PATCHWORK GIRL
POLYCHROME
PURPLE TIGRESS
SILENT VIOLET
UGLY SISTERS
VOLTESS
WILL O’ THE WISP
X OF THE UNDERGROUND

During the month of May, all other Domicile functions (save the Dread Media supplements) will be suspended so I can devote all my creative energies to this.

Hopefully, you will join me on this journey, and hopefully you will give some money to a good cause!  We start on May the 1st with Purple Tigress, the character sponsored by my first donor, Scott Rowland!

Be there!

THE MOVIE OF MY LIFE PHASE ONE: Candidates for 1975

Welcome to 1975, The Year of The Divorce.  I’m still on 76th Street in Woodhaven, still walking some eight blocks to go to school--and shipped off to my natural father in Richmond Hill every Sunday for church services, Boston cream pie and scrambled egg sandwiches. A lot of this year is a Big Ol’ Blur to me.  I do know that I’m still hanging with my next door neighbors...and I may have started hanging out with Joe, who was A Bad Influence and stole my Neal Adams X-Men.

Anyway, your candidates are:

LISZTOMANIA

As you may have gathered from my rather...vigorous defense of the great Philippe Mora, I do have a taste for, let’s say, flamboyant directors.  And no one is more flamboyant that Ken Russell, who directed two films in 1975 starring Roger Daltrey of The Who; the other was Tommy.  Like Tommy, this is a musical with Rick Wakeman (who pops up as Thor.  Yes, the God of Thunder) providing updated arrangement for the works used and Daltrey providing lyrics.  Because I didn’t know there was something as Gloriously Daft as a Ken Russell film when I was 11, I didn’t see it.  I would like to correct that now.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES’ SMARTER BROTHER

I may have stated elsewhere how impressed I was by Gene Wilder as an actor; I always contended that his Willy Wonka is a downright terrifying figure, and I regret that he rarely got a chance to do non-comedic work.  He also directed five movies, of which this is the first.  Not surprisingly, Wilder relied on a lot of his peers in the Mel Brooks Company--this is one of two candidates this poll that feature Madeline ‘The Funniest Woman Who Ever Walked This Earth And I Will Fight You If You Disagree’ Kahn.  It also features a bevy of amazing English character actors of the time; hell, we’ve got Leo McKern of The Prisoner and Rumpole of The Bailey as Professor Moriarty and Roy Kinnear as his henchman!  I want to see this for obvious reasons.

AT LONG LAST LOVE

I couldn’t find a trailer, but here’s a ‘highlight reel’ of the musical numbers.

This is a Notoriously Bad Jukebox Musical.  If you want to learn more about it, I highly recommend checking out Diva’s dissection of it on Musical Hell.  As you may have gathered, I’m something of a fan of the stunning and infinitely talented Madeline Kahn, and I have admitted in the past to crushing fiercely on Cybill Shepherd.  I am an admirer of Eileen Brennan, Burt Reynolds and M. Emmitt Walsh.  I like John Bogdonavich as a director, even though he’s a little problematic. I’ve stated before, I love musicals.   I just need to know where this all went so Horribly, Horribly Wrong.  And I am willing to suffer to find out.

BOSS...*AHEM*

Yeah...

I love Fred Williamson, who pretty much is a sub-genre all his own self.  He usually starred, directed, wrote or had a hand in producing these over-the-top blaxploitation films and did it with a true style.  Unfortunately, there are some of his films that are titled in such a way that it would be problematic for a white essayist like myself to cite them out loud--no matter how much I want to sing along to its kick-ass funk theme song.  I could refer to it as it was referred to in some markets, The Boss, but I feel that will be disrespectful to Williamson and his intent.  Let’s just say it’s a word that is....divisive.

Anyway, this is a blaxploitation western with Fred Williamson, a man who made it clear that he had to  always win and always get the girl in his contract, and directed by 50‘s sci-fi legend Jack Arnold (If you don’t know the name, you probably know his work, which includes The Incredible Shrinking Man, Creature From The Black Lagoon, High School Confidential and many, many more).  I would like to see this film, unfortunate title and all.

There you go.  You have until next Friday to vote at my Twitter Page, and I ask that you retweet the Poll after you vote.

This will be the last Poll until June, because I am devoting May to The 31 Characters 31 Days Challenge.  Click on the link to learn a little more, or watch this space for more information.

Hey!  Wanna Help Support This Blog And Get Cool Goodies In Return?  Then head on over to The Domicile of Dread Patreon Page and join me on my crusade to Make The World Stranger.  For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get new fiction and exclusive essays.  Invest a bit more, and get other stuff including advance access to my new television podcast Thomas Deja’s Watching (the first episode will be available next week!  Promise!), the Patreon Exclusive Podcast Cinematic Mirage, movie commentaries...and even the chance to assign me articles that’ll be published on this very blog!

THE MOVIES OF MY LIFE PHASE ONE: Chinatown (1974)

I have said on a number of occasions--a few I suspect were recorded and sent out into the podosphere--that the 70‘s was the last Great Era of Adult Filmmaking.  Before Jaws hit in 1976, the first film to get a nationwide day-and-date release, and Star Wars took everyone by surprise and convinced Hollywood that the money lay in appealing to the same part of our brain that gets excited over shiny things*, Mainstream Hollywood was interested in challenging its audience and opening dialogues.  Sure, there was always Escapist Fun Films, but they were released alongside those that were complex and deep and confronted things head on.  Not every movie was guaranteed to end neatly in a happy ending for our heroes--sometimes, they were lucky to live to the final shot.

Which brings us to this film, the latest Entrant on my List of Shame to be crossed off the list.  This is a movie where the hero strives to find out what exactly is going on, investigates government corruption, tries to help out a woman he sleeps with, tries to protect a girl from her predatory relative....and thoroughly and absolutely fails in everything, resulting in a police officer telling him the line of dialogue that I’ve parodied on many a podcast.  He gets to survive with his life--and nose--intact, and maybe with some knowledge that will help him out in the future.  There’s no triumph of Our Hero Over Evil, but that’s not the point of Chinatown (the title refers as much to a state of mind as to a physical place); it’s about having the solace of knowing you did Everything You Damn Well Could.

The thing that struck me in watching the film straight through is how much of this film takes place during the day.  Polanski seems to be interested a lot in playing with the conventions of the film noir, and that means loads of scenes in broad daylight--one of the most important plot points happens around the tidal pool in Evelyn’s (Faye Dunaway) backyard while Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hanging out.  There are only three real important scenes that take place at night and they usually involve Gittes in peril.  That’s not to say the film is bright; it seems to be shot in a perpetual haze, like we’re looking at old photographs.  And there’s a lot of Gittes just acting like a private eye, researching at the Hall of Records and interviewing folks and shadowing others.  Hell, Polanski seems to revel in this grunt work and treats the violence in a backhanded way.

It is hard to convey to younger generations what an amazing actor Jack Nicholson was, given that he, much like contemporaries Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken, somehow slid into the habit of Just Playing Jack in later films.  Jake Gittes is a real character who seems to have a life outside of this movie; I’m not surprised they worked hard for years to get a sequel off the ground.  I never saw Nicholson as anybody but his character for the two hour plus running time, and

this performance is a great example of why he is considered one of the greatest actors of his time.

I’m not sure, but I think this might have been the first time incest was talked about in a mainstream film.  The subject of sexual abuse is usually a trigger for me, and I was bracing myself for the revelation--but it didn’t set it off as it usually did.  There’s obviously some sort of post-shooting meddling (Nicholson’s line ‘He raped you’ is plainly ADR’d), and I wonder what Evans and Polanski’s true intentions for this revelation were; I get the feeling that Dunaway shaking her head at that moment is not her trying to disassociate herself from the memories she’s recounting, but her insisting that it wasn’t rape but a more insidious form of abuse.  I don’t know what to make of it and that actually is okay, because that form of ambiguity is sorely missing from the Mainstream Cinema of Today.

I’m grateful I finally got to see this film.  I do feel it’s an essential view for those of us who are interested in the transitory period between ‘Pure’ Noir and Neo Noir.  It is recommended.

Hey!  Wanna Help Support This Blog And Get Cool Goodies In Return?  Then head on over to The Domicile of Dread Patreon Page and join me on my crusade to Make The World Stranger.  For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get new fiction and exclusive essays (like the new Shadow Legion story that's going out to Patreons today).  Invest a bit more, and get other stuff including advance access to my new television podcast Thomas Deja’s Watching (the first episode will be available next week!  Really This Time), the Patreon Exclusive Podcast Cinematic Mirage, movie commentaries...and even the chance to assign me articles that’ll be published on this very blog!

* No, I didn’t imply that George Lucas killed the intellect of Mainstream Cinema by putting out his tribute to Flash Gordon--I’m out and out saying it.  Without the massive success of Star Wars, studios would not have been convinced to bury all their money into what should have been B pictures.  And that’s what we’ve had mainly from the 80‘s on....simplistic morality plays that emphasize visceral sensation over challenging the viewer.

I know this view will get me attacked, even as I admit that a number of those simplistic morality plays are extremely effective and well done simplistic morality plays....come at me, bros.

Phase Five of...THE HONEYWELL EXPERIMENT!

April Showers bring Italian Brutality to the OcaDecaGon as Virginia and I expose our lab rat Honeywell to the glories of Fernando DiLeo’s Milan Trilogy via The Italian Connection!  Listen in as we discuss this landmark Erurocrime film that seems to be about two American hit men in Milan before we learn what it’s really about!  We discuss the greatness of Henry Silva, Adolfo Celi and Woody ‘Best Resting Mess You Up Face’ Strode, the ever-present charm of J&B, the joy of cats and the practicalities of shooting without permits.  Oddly enough, given the recent passing of B-Movie hero Larry Cohen, we also talk a little bit about his maverick filming style (and it won’t be the last time Cohen’s name is evoked; Phase LC is coming soon!)

You can find this manly conversation here!

Be sure to check out The Gentleman’s Guide To Midnight Cinema, who originally directed me to the Milan Trilogy.  Tell Will and Sam that Tom sent you!

So pour yourself a stiff drink, act real loud and join us!  Just don’t slap any prostitutes around....

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#605

While Des is busy movin’ on up, Monster Kid Radio takes over!   Join Derek M. Koch as he talks with Christine Parker, writer/director of the new flick Blood of The Mummy!  Then Rich The Monster Movie Kid cozies up to the doppelganger thiller from Jordan Peele, Us!

 The trailers are below, as are a music video from Here Comes The Mummies and a little feature on how to kill doppelgangers because....well, you never know when you’re going to need such advice.

Mummies do not get enough respect--not for being cool monsters, and definitely not for rocking out.

Listen to Dread Media #605 here